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WEALTH AND HEALTH. 



OR 



A GUIDE TO PARENTS 

IN THS 

EDUCATION OF CHILDREN, 

PREPARED FOR THE USE OP SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES, 
BY EEV M. W. JACKSON, 

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, VA. 

"It is certainly of more consequence to a man that he has 
learned to govern his passions, to be just in his dealings, to be 
temperate in his pleasures, to behave with prudence in all his 
affairs, than to be master of all the arts and sciences in the 
world besides." — Franklin, 

''Labor improbus vincet omnia," — Virgil, 

RICHMOND: ^^ 

RITCHIES & DUNNAVANT, PRINTERS. 

1854. 



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ADDRESS TO PARENTS: 

INTRODUCTORY TO A WORK ENTITLED 

WEALTH AND HEALTH 



It is a strange fancy in the world of mind, that 
some of the most important subjects that can claim 
the attention of youth, and of mankind generally? 
should be entirely omitted in the course of a com- 
mon school education. Although we usually devote 
a full share of time and attention to the languages 
and sciences, as liberal accomplishments, the mind 
is left a perfect blank in regard to agriculture, medi- 
cine, and some other subjects of daily necessity. 
The miserable policy of keeping children at school 
during nearly the whole period of their minority is 
now the fashion of the day; and if they learn no- 
thing there of matters most vital to their welfare, 
except by accident, they must grow up to maturity, 
in total ignorance of the end of their creation, and 
become, to say the least,' mere ciphers in society. 



4 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

Agiselaus, king of Sparta, when asked what things 
boys should learn, replied : " Those things which 
they will practice when they become men.*' Five 
or six years, with good teachers, are sufficient for 
the acquisition of a good English education ; and 
this is all that can be expected for a large majority 
of children. But this should be thorough and com- 
plete, and the senior year should be delayed until 
the mind is so matured as to comprehend the high- 
er branches. Many of our greatest men had to 
educate themselves almost without schools or col- 
leges, funds or friends: and they became original 
and independent thinkers ; they learned energy as 
well as science, practice as well as theory. 

We are far from being opposed to a system of 
general education, nor would we repudiate the 
branches usually taught in our schools, especially 
philosophy and chemistry ; but would say, in the 
language of holy writ, " These ought ye to have 
done and to leave the other undone." We think 
special attention should be given to the most impor- 
tant subjects ; but it is not to be expected that half 
grown boys, by the study of a few good books, will 
make judicious farmers or skillful physicians. Our 
youth, at an early period, should have their minds 
directed to the ways and means of support, and the 
best methods of promoting health, as subjects of 
primary importance, and they will learn something 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 6 

valuable, that will leave its impress to the last day 
of life. In reference to the first of these subjects, 
we would adopt the language of Mr. Edmund Ruf- 
fin, the agricultural patriarch of the present genera- 
tion : " Agriculture, as an employment of labor 
and the means of drawing subsistence from the 
earth, has generally been conducted with less know- 
ledge and skill than any other ordinary business. 
The most ignorant of the human race may know 
that, by covering seeds in the soil and weeding the 
growing plants, crops of greater or less amount can 
be obtained ; and it seems to be thence inferred that 
less instruction and less preliminary knowledge 
were required for the proper tillage of the earth, 
than for any other business or pursuit of man. But 
though scanty products and profits may be derived 
from the rudest processes, there is no employment 
of man, whether of science or art, which requires 
such varied knowledge, skill and judgment, as does 
agriculture ; consequently, no pursuit more needs 
instruction for its young votaries. Yet it is almost 
the only business or profession which is without re- 
gular and ordinary instruction, and in vi^hich every 
learner is without a teacher." 

While we would not disparage the interests of 
the mechanic arts and mercantile pursuits, we 
would ask, shall a caUlng which eight-tenths of 
the people pursue, and upon which all depend. 



6 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

the best of all others for wealth, health, innocence 
and virtue, continue to be regarded with such in- 
difference and thrown in the back ground, while we 
give prominence to light and trivial matters ? Shall 
Virginia, with as rich a soil as any on earth, and 
the most genial climate, suffer her sons to grow up 
in ignorance and idleness, and thus fall behind, in 
character and power, many of her sister states less 
favored by nature ? With a territory thirty per 
cent, larger than New York, we have only one-third 
of her congressional representation, and yet, with a 
very little improvement in the science of husbandry 
and in habits of economy, we could support three 
times the amount of our present population. We 
have indeed a sad omen of the future in the almost 
unlimited indulgence that is in these prosperous 
times, allowed the rising generation, particularly 
in those families who are in circumstances of ease 
and affluence. If they will not regard the evils in- 
flicted upon their neighbors by a bad example, and 
the voice of an enlightened conscience, they should 
at least consider their own interest and that of their 
posterity ; for soon the wheel of fortune will carry 
them down to the vale of obscurity and misery, 
and those who are not ashamed to labor or too in- 
dolent to give an attentive eye to the movements of 
their operatives, will possess the wealth of the 
country, until they in their turn pursue a similar 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 7 

course. The wise man says, " drowsiness shall 
clothe a man with rags ;" and poor Richard says, 
*' not to oversee workmen is to leave them your 
purse open." Soon we must sell our negroes, and 
then our lands, abandon our country, and let the 
energetic Yankee monopolize the place of our na- 
tivity and convert the Old Dominion into a free 
state. But if v/e are not deaf to the calls of duty 
and dead to our interests, we will retrace our steps, 
and, to use the language of Mr. J. R. Edmunds, at 
the late fair, " in the development of her material 
power, fanaticism shall find an impassable barrier, 
and our peculiar institutions security." The only 
ray of light that falls upon the general gloom is the 
recent formation of the Virginia agricultural society, 
and we trust the zeal of twenty thousand citizens 
v/ill not evaporate with the first exhibition. And 
let us not think our duty done when we get a 
premium for a pig or sheep, hut let every man go 
to work and improve his farm, and teach prac- 
tical lessons of industry and frugality to his chil- 
dren. Let us have auxiliary societies in every 
county, and public lectures for the people. Let us 
introduce this subject earnestly into our schools, 
and have books and papers adapted to our exi- 
gences. Mr. Tyler speaks in the language of hope 
when he says '* The agricultural society of Vir- 
ginia is now a fixed fact, and its benefits are des- 



8 ADDRESS TO PARENTS, 

tined to roll over our land in a mighty volume, 
causing the desert places to bloom and blossom like 
the rose, and our beloved state to raise its bead 
proudly among the nations." The true response is 
energy, not enthusiasm, v/orks not words. Inat- 
tention to business results not only in pinching 
penury and mental agony, but in shocking vices 
and degradation of character. 

It has been well said, " the idle man's 'head is 
the devil's workshop." Shall parents, with an un- 
dying instinct to love and cherish their offspring, 
rear them up for no purpose under the sun but to 
be a curse to God's creation ? Shall every subordi- 
nate animal and insect be busy in fulfilling its des- 
tiny, and can man with impunity claim exemption 
from duty ? " Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; con- 
sider her ways and be wise ; which having no guide, 
overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the sum- 
mer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." Prov. 
vi, 6-S. No father should be considered a good 
citizen, who, through remissness or recklessness, 
turns loose upon society, a family of dissolute and 
worthless children. He alone is invested bylaw 
both human and divine with power to guide and 
govern them, and he should be held responsible at 
the bar of public sentiment, as he certainly will be 
at the bar of God. They should be taught to rise 
early, redeem the time, stay at home, renounce their 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 



sports and attend to business ; and ihey should be 
required to do it promptly and neatly. If we have 
colored laborers, it is no reason why any man should 
think himself too good to plough, dig, maul or 
haul when it comes in the way. *' It is a sad mis- 
fortune," says Bishop Andrew, *♦ for children to 
have servants to wait on them ;" and my mother 
said she would rather indulge her servants than her 
children. Children by nature are full of life and 
animation, and will be busy in good or evil, and it 
is an easy matter to train them to business if you 
begin early. The boys will have their little wa- 
gons, horses, ploughs, &c., and the little girls their 
dolls, beds and tables ; but how few parents in this 
day of trade and travel, are studiously employed in 
moulding the mind, the heart and the character? 
How can they perform this all important duty, when 
a majority of them are ever on the wing, and know 
as little about their offspring as the ostritch of the 
desert? Will a father compass sea and land to 
amass a fortune for his neglected progeny, only to 
spur them on in a course of dissipation, until the 
last farthing is spent in riotous living ? Thousands 
of dear mothers with the endurance of martyrs are 
wasting their strength to arrest the evil, but they 
are neither omnipotent nor omnipresent, and can 
have but little control over boys, unaided by their 
fathers. Farmers should keep their business snug. 



10 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

love their homes, and make companions of their 
wives and children. They have or may have the 
whole world in miniature about them, and are inde- 
pendent of the universe for sources of pleasure and 
of profit. But their calling is in so httle repute, 
even in their own estimation, that when they seek 
employment for their children, they too often think 
the labors of the farm degrading, and if none of 
the learned professions are accessible, thrust them 
into groceries and taverns, where half their time 
they have nothing to do, and are ever exposed to 
the very worst influences. The farmer or planter 
may be as learned as any other man, and if he see 
cause, can give his children a liberal education ; but 
there is great danger in sending half grown boys 
to distant schools and colleges. How can christian 
parents obey the command of God to " bring them 
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," 
when at this early period they are entirely removed 
from their supervision and control? As many of 
the best geniuses have been blighted by this mis- 
taken policy, we would say they would do better 
to stay at home until their minds are matured and 
their characters formed ; for Solomon says, " Where- 
fore is there a price put into the hand of a fool to get 
wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it." Teachers 
now often find it impossible to control scholars, but 
these gay and giddy gentry, so commonly adorned 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 11 

with rum blossoms and perfumed with cigars, might 
have made wise men and useful citizens, had they 
been kept at the plough, the bench or the anvil. 

And the daughters of the land should be taught 
to frown upon dandies and rowdies, and seek com- 
panions among steady, industrious men. The great 
Washington said, " Agriculture is the most healthy, 
the most useful, and the most noble employment of 
man." And the disease which ended his brilliant 
career, was contracted by exposure in attending to 
the business of his farm. I rejoice that we have 
yet in Virginia a remnant of the good old Roman 
stock who are not ashamed to w^ork, but think it a 
shame for any man or woman to be brought up in 
idleness. They find it difficult to stem the mighty 
current that bears against them, but soon we trust 
the tide will be in their favor. Certainty, if reason 
and revelation, conscience and common sense are 
regarded, we shall speedily have a reformation. 
The old proverb is, " He that raises his son with- 
out a trade, teaches him to steal." And the verdict 
of revelation is, '-If any will not work, neither 
shall he eat." In view of this state of things at the 
present crisis, the first part of our work is made to 
consist of a short treatise on agriculture, principally 
in its practical details as hints to farmers in general, 
and to youth somewhat advanced in their educa- 
tion. And in connection, as a part of the course, we 



12 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

would recommend Norton's Elements of Scientific 
Agriculture. 

Next to food and raiment, in importance for com- 
fort and usefulness, is the health of our bodies ; and 
every son and daughter of Adam's race should be 
taught something of the healing art in connection 
with anatomy and physiology. But we may be 
told, " a little learning is a dangerous thing." And 
perhaps the poet practiced on this sentiment, when 
he fell a martyr to his appetite, from a surfeit on 
anchovy sauce. Shall a man know nothing of dis- 
eases or remedies, of poisons or antidotes, because 
he has not a diploma? Or shall we adopt the 
maxim of the Jesuits, that " ignorance is the mother 
of devotion?" — " Half the time and attention which 
are devoted to the minor politics, arising out of our 
party dissensions," says an eminent medical writer, 
"would, if appropriated to medical studies, enable 
any person of tolerable capacity to practice with 
safety and advantage in those cases of simple 
disease which are most incident to our climate, 
and to determine between the arrant quack and 
the modest, well educated and judicious physi- 
cian." The human body is a most wonderful and 
perfect piece of mechanism, formed by the wise and 
benevolent Creator to operate in health and har- 
mony, (without some special adverse providence,) 
for three score years and ten ; but by the ignorance 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 13 

and recklessness of mortals, long in advance of 
that time, its functions are deranged and its ener- 
gies broken down. It cannot be pleaded in truth, 
that this happens mainly to invalids from some he- 
reditary infirmity ; for generally the most robust 
and vigorous, in consequence of some indulgence 
or rashness, are cut down first, and thus many valu- 
able lives are lost. Bacon said, "The only cause 
of death, which is natural to man, is old age." As 
a general rule, we should not consider our pains 
and diseases as unavoidable accidents, but as fruits 
of our folly. 

I think the Spectator says, " When I see a table 
loaded with rich meats and custards, accompanied 
with sauce and wines to stimulate the jaded appe- 
tite, I fancy I see concealed under the dishes, gouts, 
rheumatism, jaundice and a long train of painful 
disorders, ready to fasten upon the merry com- 
pany." And Dr. Franklin says, ** Since the art of 
cookery has been so much improved, mankind 
generally eat about twice as much as nature re- 
quires." But how few have the first thought that a 
majority of our diseases and deaths originate from 
these excesses ? Many disbelieve it altogether, and 
others will tell you that the remedy is worse than 
the disease. We have seen some of our best friends 
fall in this way, and others have been saved by 
giving ear to a little advice* The habits of children 



14 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

in this respect should be noticed, and they should 
be taught lessons of prudence and self denial. 
The evil is not limited to physical debihty and 
premature dissolution. The noble mind being 
dependent on the condition of the nervous system 
for the exercise and development of its powers, is 
generally enfeebled in the same proportion, and 
there is an incalculable waste of talent that might 
be employed for the good of the community. In- 
deed, we suppose there is no such phenomenon in 
nature as mental derangement or imbecility, but 
conclude that all apparent feebleness or aberration, 
whether in infancy, maturity or old age, is the result 
of physical infirmity. Not only do we see that the 
prevalent and disgusting malad\'' denominated mania 
potu is the result of strong drink, but fits in children, 
and folly and insanity in adults, might often be pre- 
vented by a iitde restraint upon their diet. And 
is it unreasonable to suppose that Franklin was 
indebted to his vegetable diet for his remarkable 
vigor of mind and energy of character ? A new 
and cheap edition of his life and essays at this crisis 
might make a favorable impression upon the minds 
of our young men. It is a work that should be in 
every family, but I think there are not many copies 
now in the country. We have so little knowledge 
of pestilential gasses, have so little prudence in our 
indulgences, and are so often exposed to danger 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 15 

even in the discharge of duty, that sooner or later 
diseases will come; and it is highly in^portant that 
all heads of families at least should be acquainted 
with the most efficient and common remedies, and 
with the symptoms of prevalent diseases. A man 
who knows the constitution and habits of his wife, 
child or servant, if he is a man of experience and 
prudence, can sometimes practice with as much 
safety as the most skillful physician, and a dose of 
medicine at the proper time may save life; but a 
partial acquaintance with the subject will not do 
away the necessity of medical advice in different 
cases. Let no one be frightened by a few hard 
words to think it a kind of free masonry locked up 
in mystery from all except the initiated. The 
names of things as in law are generally in Latin 
or Greek, but the things themselves are plain and 
simple. For instance, sal commune in Latin signifies 
common salt, and cutis vera, the true skin ; but 
these mysteries are sometimes convenient upon the 
score of modesty. We see no necessity for such 
profound mystery upon a subject that all ought to 
understand to a considerable extent ; and if the 
pupils cannot study the dead languages, they can 
learn the deanition of the words in a dictionary or 
glossary. "It is somewhat unaccountable," says 
Dr. Dick, ''and not a little inconsistent, that while 
we direct the 3'oung to look abroad over the sur- 



16 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

face of the earth, and survey its mountains, rivers, 
seas and continents, and guide their views to the 
regions of the firmament, where they may contem- 
plate the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, and 
thousands of luminaries placed at immeasurable 
distances, we should never teach them to look 
within themselves; to consider their own corporeal 
structures, the numerous parts of which they are 
composed, the admirable functions they perform, 
the wisdom and goodness displayed in their me- 
chanism, and the lessons of practical instruction 
which may be derived from such contemplation.'* 
On this branch of medical science we would here 
recommend "Cutler's Anatomy and Physiology, 
designed for Academies and Schools," a small 
volume with over two hundred engravings ; but as 
we have seen nothing on pathology and the prac- 
tice of medicine adapted to schools, we have, by 
the aid of some medical friends, prepared a 
condensed treatise upon those branches, which 
constitutes the second part of our volume. The 
Thompsonian system may have its merits, when 
in the hands of judicious men, but from some 
experience and observation, we have been induced 
to consider calomel the Sampson of the materia 
medica, especially in the diseases of white people, 
in which the liver is apt to be more or less impli- 
cated. And children can be induced to take it 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 17 

without being aware of it, when it is very difficult 
to get them to drink large draughts of lobelia, 
pepper, &c. Upon this subject we will only add, 
that we have had a family for more than a quarter 
of a century, and under the old practice, by the 
blessing of a kind Providence, we have yet to 
witness the first death in our household. 

Another subject which we think is sadly neg- 
lected in our schools is religion, and the proper 
text book is the Bible, which is now almost dis- 
carded. This indicates a bad moral condition, 
both of teachers and patrons. Will a wise people 
endeaver to blot out the sun, that they may be 
guided by a feeble taper ? Yet in substance this is 
recommended and to a considerable extent adopted 
as one of the improvements of the age. If its 
style is a little antiquated, as is sometimes argued 
even by members of the church, there is an ample 
atonement made in the sublimity of its doctrines 
and the purity of its precepts ; and its power is far 
superior to that of the birch in securing subordina- 
tion. If it cannot be systematically taught and 
expounded, at least let it be read with seriousness, 
and portions of it committed to memory. This is 
the more necessary, as there is reason to fear that 
since the vast multiplication of books and papers, 
it is more neglected in families than formerly. Not 
only every christian, but every patriot and philan- 



18 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

thropist should be firmly fixed upon this point. 
And the Sabbath school, that efficient substitute for 
the labors of delinquent parents and teachers, 
should be encouraged and sustained as far as prac- 
ticable. Our president, following in the footsteps 
of the illustrious Washington, in his tone of moral 
feeling, sa3^s, *' It is my deepest conviction that we 
can place no secure reliance upon any apparent 
progress, if it be not sustained by national integrity, 
resting upon the great truths affirmed and illus- 
trated by divine revelation." The term education 
is greatly misapplied when made to signify merely 
a literary course of study. Literature alone has 
no sanctifying effect on the heart ; and not un- 
frequently, as Paul says, " knowledge pufFeth up," 
as we see in young men who despise their parents, 
who by their hard earnings have given them greater 
advantages for mental culture than they themselves 
possessed. The moral nature must be cultivated as 
well as the intellectual, or there is great danger 
that man in his depravity will be- a demon in 
principle, whether shining in literary circles or 
unknown in the shades of retirement. Dr. Thorn- 
well truly says, " Science languishes, letters pine, 
refinement is lost wherever and whenever the 
genius of religion is excluded." Religion, then, 
should be regarded as the first and foremost subject 
in any system of education, but I do not think it 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 19 

necessary to embody its doctrines and precepts in 
a text book, as we have one dictated by infinite 
wisdom, and acceptable to all denominations. 

To aid parents and guardians in developing and 
directing the physical, intellectual and moral powers 
of the dear youth committed to their charge, I have 
found it necessary to prepare a book upon two 
neglected subjects which I deem of great impor- 
tance; but we have already at least a sufficient 
number and variety upon other subjects. As we 
are decidedly opposed to the great variety of school 
books that has flooded the land of late years to the 
perplexity of teachers and the confusion of classes, 
we regret the necessity of making an addition to 
the number ; but we will make a suggestion that 
may in some degree diminish this needless expense 
for the time to come. With the exception of Dr. 
McGufFey's series, v/e very much doubc whether 
there has been any important improvement in 
common school books for the last half century, and 
yet almost every new teacher must have a new set 
of books. It is not easy to find anything superior 
to Webster's SpelHng Book, Pike's Arithmetic, and 
Murray's English Grammar. Both for our purse 
and progress we would suggest to the friends of 
education in the state to call a convention of teach- 
ers and literary characters every ten years to ex- 
amine school books, and recommend the most 



20 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

simple and lucid for the use of our primary schools, 
and let them promptly reject all innovations and 
alterations, unless when some important discovery 
is made. 

M. W. J. 



PART I. 
AGRICULTURE. 



Columbia's sons, spurn not the rugged toil, 
The glory of your country is a cultured soil; 
Mount Vernon's patriot, of unrivaled worth, 
Increased his laurels while he tilled the earth. 

** The aversion of farmers to consult books on 
agriculture," says Skinner, " doubtless arises in a 
great measure from the neglect of parents to have 
agriculture, and studies nearly akin to it, made a 
part of the education of their sons." Books writ- 
ten by experienced practical men do not consist of 
ingenious speculations and abstract theories, but 
mostly of well established facts, which may be of 
great value to the young, and to many adults ; and 
in a few hours, or days at most, these facts may be 
learned, which it would require years to know by 
incidental conversation and observation ; and in the 
mean time man}- losses will be sustained by the re- 
peated errors which we commit. Certainly an im- 
portant truth loses none of its value by being in 



22 AGRICULTURE. 

print ; and a single hint may be worth more than 
the price of the book. For instance, two years ago 
I pubhshed in the Southern Planter a simple plan 
for keeping sweet potatoes, which has never been 
known to fail, and which I have given in this little 
book ; and my father, for want of the knowledge, 
lost more every year in his potatoes than would pay 
for a large volume. The word agriculture is derived 
from two Latin words, ager a field, and colo to cul- 
tivate, and signifies the art or science of cultivating 
the earth to procure subsistence for man and beast. 
Its practical operations may be considered an art, 
and to use the language of Liebig, " A knowledge 
of all the conditions of the life of vegetables, the 
origin of their elements and the sources of their 
nourishment, forms its scientific basis." It is an 
avocation that should be well understood and held 
in high repute, as all classes of men are supported 
by it, and a large majority are necessarily engaged 
in it. The eloquent Major Wright of Missouri, at 
the fair of that state held at Booneville in October, 
said, *' The highest attainments of science are yet to 
be won from the soil she has neglected, and the 
highest duty of the state is to place agricultural edu- 
cation within the reach of all her sons. Science, 
weary of the laggard and fickle motion of the winds, 
has seized the invincible strength of water, put it into 
iron harness, and now defies both wind and wave. 



AGRICULTURE. 23 

By the united power of the locomotive and steam- 
ship, oceans dry up, continents shake hands, and 
Ariel's girdle belts the earth. But as yet agricul- 
ture is the only art left behind in this unparalleled 
advance of other arts and sciences." The subject 
embraces the consideration of soils and manures ; 
crops and modes of cultivation ; agricultural imple- 
ments and machinery ; draining and irrigation ; fuel 
and fencing ; stock raising and fattening. 



SECTION L 

OF SOILS. 



There is a great variety of soils, and they should 
be carefully studied, not only that we may be able 
to make judicious purchases, but apply to each suit- 
able manures, and put into them suitable crops. 
Norton says, " we can tell what is necessary to fer- 
tihze the most hopeless desert, but at the same time 
may not be able to conduct the operation so as to 
make it profitable. It becomes no longer a ques- 
tion of knowledge — it is one of expense." All soils 
have both a mechanical and chemical character, the 
first relating merely to the position of their particles 
as forming hard or soft land, the second to the com- 
position and quahty of their materials as rich or 



24 AGRICULTURE. 

poor. When the farmer drains, ploughs and hoes 
his land, he alters chiefly its mechanical or physical 
character ; when he manures it, he alters its consti- 
tution or chemical character. Each soil produces 
vegetation suitable to its own nature, viz : those 
plants which require for their growth those sub- 
stances which actually abound in it, as we see in 
the production of sorrel on acid soils, and the failure 
of tobacco or wheat on rich lots after several suc- 
cessive crops, thus requiring a rotation of crops. 
But the evil might be remedied by supplying the 
deficient material. Some soils are red and stiff, and 
are best adapted to wheat and clover ; others are 
light and sandy, and are more suitable for corn and 
oats, and when the sand is of a fine texture, they 
suit tobacco. They imbibe too much water for 
wheat, and if it is put into them they require rolling 
or treading. But to be more particular, soils may 
be distinguished as silicious, aluminous and calca- 
rious, according as silica, alumina or lime prevails. 
Leibig says, ** Lime especially serves for resolving 
the silicates of alumina (clay,) and consequently it 
cannot fertilize soils in which clay is wanting, for 
instance, sandy soils." 

An alluvial soil is a deposit in bottoms by the 
washings from the ' 5 and mountains, and when 
not too sandy, is generally very rich. But the most 
of this, as well as the dark surface soil in our origi- 



AGRICULTURE. 25 

nal forests, is a vegetable mould called humus» 
Some writers and most of farmers call it the soil, 
as distinguished from the clay or subsoil ; and as 
Webster admits this definition in his Dictionary, 
we will adopt it. Loam may be considered a 
kind of artificial soil, made up of a mixture of 
others by the process of cultivation. The subsoil 
is divided into two classes s the first consisting of 
pure or pipe clay, but only found in small quanti- 
ties ; the second, of unctuous or tile clay, inclucHng 
in it a portion of sand. But the clay is formed 
of more simple materials, as alumina, silica, mag- 
nesia &c. The crust of the earth, it is thought, 
has been mostly formed by the disintegration or 
crumbhng of the great rocks that are found under 
its surface, inasmuch as there is generally a simi- 
larity in texture and character. Good uplands 
generally rest on Hmestone, sandstone, slate or 
granite ; and these rocks contain silica, lime, pot- 
ash, soda and other mineral manures. Forest land, 
not originally good, should, if practicable, be kept 
for timber and leaves or pasture, as it will not re- 
tain manure when applied, and is, therefore, called 
a leechy or hungry soil ; and as proof we would 
say, it has had a heavy coating of leaves from the 
days of the deluge, and ye ' has made no im- 
provement. Such land, if made rich, is ever tend- 
ing to its original poverty, and good land, if made 
2 



26 AGRICULTURE. 

poor, to its original fertility. Lands composed of 
coarse sand or gravel, are necessarily poor from 
their mechanical structure, as most of the fertilizing 
matter, as soon as it gets into a fluid state, filtrates 
through them down into the bowels of the earth, 
beyond the reach of the growing crops ; and as 
evidence, we have known springs and wells im- 
pregnated and injured by decayed matter from ice- 
houses and grave-yards. This frail tendency in 
certain soils has been denied by some, and Mr. 
Ruffin had doubts in regard to it ; but in the last 
edition of his Essay on Calcarious Manures he ad- 
mits that fertilizing ingredients may thus be lost by 
" penetrating to the sources of springs, either tem- 
porary or permanent, and pass into the streams." 
This idea is of great importance to the farmer, to 
prevent him from heedlessly wasting his manures. 
As soils are so various in Virginia, and often even on 
a single farm, and the opinions of learned men so 
discordant in regard to the causes of sterility, we 
do not know what to expect from chemical analy- 
ses of soils ; but certainly the importance of the 
subject demands a full and fair experiment, and the 
growing interest in the public mind would justify 
the legislature in appointing a state chemist, if a 
suitable man could be found. But, at present, we 
think the best mode of knowing lands of good ori- 
ginal quality is, to see their production or learn the 



AGRICULTURE. 27 

history of their products. As a general rule we 
ma}'- suppose that our best lands were cleared first, 
and the tall pines, together with the turf that lines 
the galls and gullies, are good indications of power 
in the soil. While a leechy soil is ever crying 
" give, give, and is never satisfied," a lot of good 
land is like a horse of good constitution, easy to 
keep ; and such lots may be found on most farms, 
particularly on the slopes near the streams. This 
may result from the rock underneath, which is ge- 
nerally nearer the surface than on table lands, or 
from the gases that arise from the streams and 
marshes. 



SECTION II. 

MINERAL MANURES. 

The renovation of our exhausted fields is the 
point of greatest interest to farmers in the old states, 
where our best lands have been carried off by 
drenching rains or rendered lifeless by a long con- 
tinued process of depletion. Our fathers, having an 
interminable wilderness before them, cared but little 
and knew but little about ameliorating the soil ; but 
their descendants are now pent up by the western 
ocean, and emigration has come to a dead halt. In 
1620, the men of Plymouth rock saw the first light 



M AGRICULTURE. 

of morning gild the waves of the Atlantic, and now 
their descendants and our brethren see twilight 
deepen on the smooth waters of the Pacific. Our 
religion as well as our patriotism should rebuke our 
prodigality, and prompt us to study and practice 
habits of simplicity in our style of living, economy 
in our financial and fertilizing resources, and dili- 
gence in every department of business. Without a 
radical and speedy reformation, desolation and de- 
struction will overtake us ; but by giving heed to the 
mandates of reason we may become a prosperous 
and happy people, and bequeath the legacy to 
generations yet unborn. One important art for the 
improvement of our farms, is so to plough and 
trench as to retain upon our premises the little fer- 
tiUiy we have left. It is surprising and sickening 
to the feelings to see the neglect in this matter in 
many sections of our country ; and some who un- 
dertake it, work in such a way as to defeat their 
object. The farmer should never suffer a gully or 
gall to disfigure his fields, and the most of them 
can be healed up in a few hours with a little pine 
brush. 

It has been often observed, that the site of an 
old dwelhng house or granary, when put in cultiva- 
tion after all the materials are removed, will retain 
its fertility for ages. The man who could account 
for this might with propriety receive a gold me- 



AGRICULTURE. 29 

dal; but perhaps the benevolent Creator may 
choose to withhold this knowledge from us to find 
us employment and keep us out of mischief. I 
have two such spots on my own land, and have 
manured freely around one of them, and my appli- 
cation, although fully equal in efficiency at the time, 
has disappeared by successive crops, while that 
remains and will remain for generations to come. 
Some have thought that this remarkable reteniive- 
ness was produced by ashes in converting it into an 
alkahne soil ; but it occurs without ashes, and some- 
limes fails where ashes abound, as in case of a burnt 
tobacco barn. My o.wn conjecture is, that it results 
from the length of time that was allowed the soluble 
ingredients in large quantities to sink into the 
subsoil, and the great depth to which they de- 
scended, and thus they are retained and returned 
annually in small quantities ; for this pecuharity is 
more visible on fine, compact soils. Shell marl, in 
lower Virginia, has performed wonders in renova- 
ting the soils, through the skill and energy of Mr. 
Ruffin ; but as it is found only in the tide water dis- 
tricts, it can never be brought into general use. 
But if our soils are poisoned with the same acid as 
is found there, possibly the common carbonate of 
lime, which is now only 10 cents per bushel in the 
cities, might be a valuable antidote. The few ex- 
periments that have been made are rather contra- 



30 AGRICULTURE. 

dictory ; but as we now have facilities for transpor- 
tation, we could make the trial on small lots and in 
different modes. As to gypsum, (sulphate of lime,) 
Norton says, and we know it by experience, " there 
are many large districts where it produces no effect ; 
but it may always be considered that where lime or 
gypsum do no good, there is already, in one form 
or another, a supply of both naturally in the soil, or 
some physical or chemical defect which prevents 
their action." On our hght, sandy lands our fathers 
tried it many years ago, and laid it aside ; but on 
red, stiff lands some still use it. From observing 
the luxuriant vegetation on the loose earth carried 
out from some of the deep cuts on our railroads, 
particularly where there was an appearance of fel- 
spar rock or slate, and the production from clay 
taken from cellars and ice-houses, I have thought it 
probable that we who are in the upper country 
might find valuable materials on our own farms 
equivalent to the clay marl of England. I have 
made some experiment with a soapy clay taken 
from a cellar, and it produced a heavy yield the first 
year, but it does not appear to be permanent. Per- 
haps we may find tufa among our rocks, and ulti- 
mately use the most of them, by burning or grind- 
ing- as fertilizers. 



AGRICULTURE. 31 

SECTION III. 

PUTRESCENT MANURES AND GREEN CROPS. 

So far as we can j^et see, our citizens above tide 
water must depend for heavy crops chiefly upon 
vegetable and animal substances in a state of de- 
cay, and these are found to be rich food for all 
plants. If by our quackery in mineral medicines 
we are as liable to kill as cure, let us feed mother 
earth with nourishing diet in imitation of her own 
mode of regaining strength. If our nostrums do 
not quite extinguish the vit^l spark, they often 
afford only a temporary stimulus, which leaves her 
more prostrate than before. There is not only a 
remarkable similarity in the physiology of vegeta- 
ble and animal life, but a great degree of identity 
in the elements that constitute the bodies of both 
classes of beings. " These three nitrogenized com- 
pounds, vegetable fibrine, albumen and caseine," 
says Liebig, " are the three nitrogenized consti- 
tuents of the food of graminivorous animals, and 
they are identical in composition with the chief 
constituents of blood." Again he says : " The 
animal organism is a high kind of vegetable, the 
development of which begins with those substances 
vAih the production of which the life of an ordinary 



355 AGRICULTURE. 

vegetable ends." If this analogy be true, is It 
analogous that vegetables should receive a portion 
of their food through their leaves, which are con- 
sidered the lungs of the plants? I know a doubt 
upon this subject will be considered a heresy in 
science; but I have seen facts calculated to induce 
a behef that the whole of the pabulum, either in a 
gaseous or fluid state, enters through the roots. I 
saw, last year, a small field of corn, entirely sur- 
rounded v/ith woods ; and although a high land 
field, was equal in luxuriance to river bottom ; and 
what was more remarkable, my attention being 
directed by the owner to the effects of a ditch cut 
on one side to sever*the roots of the forest trees, I 
discovered the corn was equally good up to the 
fence, and old cultivators have long acted from this 
impression. But we admit, as in the animal 
economy, that the lungs (leaves) inhale gases to 
purify the blood (the sap) and promote digestion 
and assimilation ; and consequently that the atmos- 
phere is as indispensable to plants as to animals. 
Professor Mapes, v/hiie he does not fully coincide 
with our fancy, says : " The carbonic acid of the 
atmosphere enters the roots of plants in solution 
with w^ater, and in passing up through them de- 
posits its carbon, forming the chief part of the dry 
weight of the plants, giving off its ox^'gen to the 
atmosphere." Professor Shulze says : " Carbonic 



AGRICULTURE. 33 

acid is sucked in by the roots only, together with 
other nutritious substances." I make this digres- 
sion to prevent farmers from destro^^ing their timber 
to save their crops, as is sometimes recommended. 
If, in Flanders, the urine from a single cow is con- 
sidered worth ten dollars per annum, and if the 
excrements from each animal and human being, if 
carefully preserved, will make at least as much as 
they consume, while nature is annually at work 
adding to our stores, what mysterious problem is 
there connected with the renovation of our sterile 
fields? But instead of covering these valuable 
materials in the earth, or with earth, we suffer them 
to waste by fermentation and evaporation, or run 
off into the streams ; for when we smell the manure 
bank, or even a barn of tobacco, we may know a 
loss is sustained. Boussingault says, that " Dry 
stable manure, after heating in a thick stratum, has 
been known to lose nine-tenths of its weight, and 
of the remainder there was only one-third of its 
nitrogen left, which is the element that constitutes 
the nitrogenous principle of plants and the flesh 
and muscle of animals." The process of putre- 
faction, like that of digestion in the stomach, is a 
slow combustion, tending to convert all organized 
matter into its original elements, as fire acts on 
wood, and we should by no means allow it to take 
place in our manures until the crops have need of 
2* 



3C AGRICULTURE. 

them. Major Wright of Missouri eloquently re- 
marks, that " nitrogen has wings so nimble that 
they need clipping, and science only can perform 
that operation well. It presents an anomaly in na- 
ture. In the air it is in the midst of very active 
and combustible agents, that have a wide range of 
affinities prompting them to unite with many sub- 
stances; but it is characterized by its utter indif- 
ference to all other substances — it has an apparent 
reluctance to enter into combination with any of 
them," Coarse litter, like stalks or straw, when 
kept covered by fresh accumulations, should lie 
long enough to undergo a partial decomposition, 
that they may be easily broken to pieces and 
handled, and refined for the convenience of plough- 
ing them in ; and a yard for feeding and treading 
should be formed, with a dish towards the centre, 
that the hquids may be saved. It is best when it 
can be done, to have the fields to corner near the 
dwelling, and have a permanent farm pen con- 
venient to them all, that the farmer may have his 
stock and work more ufider his eye. All fine 
manure should be sheltered to preserve its strength 
and keep it light and loose for hauling and spread- 
ing. A Dutchman's barn is the largest and finest 
house on his premises, but a Tuckahoe will spend 
thousands for a fine dwelling, and leave sheds, shel- 
ters and cabins neglected. Much valuable manure 



AGRICULTURE. 35 

might be collected from hogs, sheep and fowls, and 
that from fowls is richer than that from any animal, 
for the reason that we have the liquid and solid 
excrements mixed together. Hogs intended for 
pork should be kept up in close pens on plank 
floors almost from pigs, and fed like shoats on slops, 
vegetables, meal, corn, &c., and the manure it is 
thought will amount in value to at least half the 
expense of fattening, and the meat will be better. 
It is almost needless to say, that we may find rich 
materials about our hedges, fences, houses, &c., to 
say nothing of our marshes and streams. I shall 
say nothing of guano, as it is so well understood, 
and it is a little doubtful whether it will remunerate 
at present prices, if we should have bad seasons 
and depressed prices for produce. Green crops 
consist of clover and other grasses, cultivated to be 
turned into the soil as manure, and they are well 
worthy of attention if the farmer can find the time 
in the midst of his other engagements. Sir H. 
Davy says : *' When green crops are to be em- 
ployed for enriching the soil, they should be 
ploughed in if possible when in bloom ; for it is at 
this period that they contain the largest quantity of 
easily soluble substances, and that their leaves are 
most active in forming nutritive matter." But the 
fallow of clover should be delayed until the seeds 
ripen, to avoid the expense of buying seed, as they 



Sl^ AGRICULTURE. 

will remain in the earth, and stock his field for 
years to come. On light gray land not adapted to 
clover, he may substitute oats, peas or herds-grass, 
and before ploughing let his stock feed upon them ; 
but for this kind of land I think hard treading and 
grazing is better than ploughing. 

SECTION IV. 

CORN. 

*' He that by the plough would thrive, 
Himself must either hold or drive." 

Almost any land is good, and any crop profitable 
to the industrious, skillful and economical man, but 
without regular toil and unremitting vigilance his 
expenses will exceed his income, especially if much 
sickness occurs or several unfavorable seasons come 
in succession. If Infinite Wisdom saw it proper 
to put Adam in the garden *' to dress it and keep 
it" while he enjoyed its fruits, how much more 
necessary is employment for his degenerate sons 
and daughters ! The principal crops in Virginia 
consist of corn, wheat, oats, hay, potatoes, turnips, 
peas, pumpkins and tobacco ; and we would say 
that by analysis it has been ascertained they are all 
composed mostly of four simple substances, carbon, 
oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, which are called 



AGRICULTURE. 37 

organic substances because they are the products of 
vegetable life and fornri the organs of the plant. In 
combustion these fly off into the atmosphere in the 
form of gas and vapor, and a few ashes remain, 
amounting only to eight or ten pounds in every 
hundred, consisting of potash, soda, lime, magnesia, 
silica, &c., which are called inorganic substances. 
The quantity of these several elements varies in 
different plants and in different parts of the same 
plant, as in the grain and stalk ; and animals prefer 
short grass because it is richest near the ground. 
Corn is the great crop in the South for thrift and 
comfort, as it embraces both bread and meat, and 
it should not be neglected or slighted for any other 
crop. Norton says "it is unrivalled in its quality 
for fattening, as it contains by analysis about ten 
per cent, of fatty matter." In selecting seed corn 
we should have regard to a long deep grain and 
small cob, as it yields more and is not so liable to 
rot in wet weather. Corn on the high lands should 
be planted early in April, but the flats will do well 
any time in May. All the flats intended for corn 
should be ploughed jjp in November or December 
by flushing in beds twenty or thirty feet wide, and 
the water furrows should be opened nicely with the 
hoe. If this is not done before the spring the wet 
portions will be sobbed to death, and thus the best 
land after much hard work will yield nothing. 



38 AGRICULTURE. 

High land will do fully as well ploughed in the 
spring, and should generally be thrown up in single 
beds, that the land may not wash or bake, and the 
corn being a little elevated will take an early start ; 
but the opening furrows for the reception of the 
corn should be very deep, and the corn planted low 
in the earth. In the culture the small dagon is 
generally used first in throwing the earth from the 
corn, and then in laying by the earth is thrown 
back, so there is but little necessity for the hoe. 
This is perhaps the best and cheapest method, but 
others prefer to have their rows on a level with the 
earth, and cultivate it with harrows and coulters. 
Deep ploughing is required in the whole process of 
cultivation, not only to render the land soft and 
friable for the progress of the roots, but to admit 
the gases and water freely, and prevent the land 
from washing. In long dry spells, to which we 
are so subject in the South, the corn will retain 
its color and vigor, and make a good yield with 
very little rain. There is some doubt whether 
subsoil ploughing is worth the time and labor; 
but it has a tendency to prevent the land from 
washing, and saves some weeding by burying the 
seed of grass too deep to germinate. Professor 
Mapes mentions land that had been brought up 
from fifteen to seventy-five bushels of corn per acre 
by subsoiUng. When there is much coarse litter 



AGRICULTURE. 39 

to be ploughed in, the land should be flushed with a 
large plough, and then ridged with a small dagon. 
Not a foot of land should be put in corn that will 
not yield five barrels to the acre, and then we may 
make corn enough and find time for many valuable 
improvements. When the corn is gathered the 
stalks should be speedily brought together and 
stacked or set up with the little end down, and 
thrown into the pens early in the winter for food 
and litter. But if food is abundant, they may be 
buried in the field in the water furrows between the 
rows where they grew ; and in this case it is best 
not to cut the tops, but pull off the blades. Wheat 
should not follow corn if it can be avoided. 



SECTION V. 

WHEAT AND OATS. 

The wheat crop has become more important 
since our railroads have penetrated almost every 
section of the commonwealth, and it may finally 
supplant that troublesome weed, tobacco ; and it 
has an important bearing upon the improvement of 
the soil. The white bearded wheat, sometimes 
called the Ward, will stand rust and smut best, but 
some other varieties are richer in quality and more 
productive in quantity. I suppose that wheat is 



4Q: AGRICULTURE. 

not indigenous to our climate, as any kind will 
depreciate, and must be exchanged for a different 
variety from another part of the world ; but this 
peculiarity does not apply to oats and corn. For- 
ward wheat is not very liable to rust, and it is 
believed that when the seed is soaked well in brine 
and rolled in caustic lime it will not be anno3^ed 
with that formidable disease now spreading among 
us, called smut. While wheat will not so well fol- 
low corn and be healthy, it does well after tobacco, 
oats or peas. I sometimes sow a portion of my 
crop the last of August, and it does well, but I 
have it grazed hard in the fall and winter to destroy 
the fly, which to some little extent is apt to get into 
it. Also the grazing is beneficial to the stock and 
the treading to the soil, but the stock should not 
be there immediately after rain or hard freezing. 
Wheat is generally sown broadcast, but of late a 
few have introduced the drilling machine, and the 
land should be well refined and cleaned. Before 
the ploughs leave the field trenches should be made 
by dagon furrows on all the slopes to prevent wash- 
ing. The use of alcohol in harvest is a great mis- 
take; but if any special drink is required, a beverage 
made of vinegar and water is innocent and palata- 
ble. If injury is done by drinking cold water, Dr. 
Rush advises a teaspoonful or more of laudanum. 
Wheat when cut should lie two or three days in the 



AGRICULTURE. 41 

sun to get thoroughly dried, and then there Is no dan- 
ger of weevil should it remain in stacks until the fall, 
which is the best time to get it out, both for com- 
fort and convenience. If wheat should take a little 
rain on the ground, it will not be injured ; but oats 
should be taken up as soon as possible and put in 
good stacks at once in different parts of the field. 
It is best to commence seeding oats the last of 
February if the season will permit. 



SECTION VI. 

HAY AND PASTURAGE. 

In Eastern Virginia the sun is too hot for meadow 
grass to any great extent, and we need our flats for 
corn, but we should have clover lots for hogs, and 
also for hay. As an improver, clover will not an- 
swer on sandy soils ; but herds-grass or timothy 
should be scattered freely for grazing, and in some 
locations a meadow might be very valuable if made 
rich enough to keep out broomstraw. When our 
fiats are scarce they should be kept in the highest 
degree of fertility ; and Low says, " Lands after 
cropping ma}^ be laid dow^n to grass and grazed 
with constantly increasing fertility; but if suffered 
to become full of weeds the improvement is slow." 
The first statement is very encouraging, if true, 



42 AGRICULTURE. 

and the last is doubtless the truth when applied 
to broomstraw. When this is thick we should 
not turn it in as it is an acid grass, but burn it, and 
the ashes will give the soil an alkaline character. 
Every man who would have good stock should 
have two places for pasture, that he may shift them 
frequently ; and this applies especially to sheep. All 
stock should be excluded from the common pasture 
in the spring for several weeks after the warm wea- 
ther commences, that the grass may get ahead of 
their wants, and then it will keep ahead. This 
pasture should include our meanest land, and if the 
broomstraw is fired in the winter or spring it affords 
good grazing while tender, but young pines should 
not be destroyed in the operation. 



SECTION VII. 

POTATOES AND TURNIPS. 

Sweet potatoes should be put on soft, sandy land, 
a little moist, and planted in April. They should 
be cut into pieces about three inches long, and two 
pieces put in a hill ; but the red may be planted 
from slips drawn from a hot bed prepared in the 
month of March. Before digging, a load of dry 
oak leaves should be provided, and as the potatoes 
are dug they should be at once taken to the cellars, 



AGRICULTURE. 43 

taking care to have the sides well lined with the 
leaves, and the potatoes covered over with a mass 
about a foot in thickness; and then you will never 
have to buy or beg seed. Or you can naake a kiln in 
your field or garden, by elevating the earth about six 
inches, and after putting on the potatoes put on 
leaves, boards and earth, and make a rail pen around 
it and cover it with plank or boards, taking care at 
the same time to fill the pen with leaves. For ex- 
pedition Irish potatoes may be planted in the bot- 
tom of a deep furrow and covered with straw or 
stable manure, and then let the furrow slices be re- 
versed and thrown on them ; and the planting may 
be in November or March. Potatoes should have 
a light weeding with the hoe before the plants ap- 
pear above the ground, to destroy the young grass ; 
but Irish potatoes need only one thorough working. 
It is useless to plant them late and expect a sum- 
mer crop in our climate ; but if we plant in the fall 
or spring we will succeed well, and as we have ne- 
ver seen the rot, we ought to go more into the cul- 
ture of this cheap and valuable article. 

Turnips will not often do well if sown before the 
first of August. The best of them should be put 
in kilns in November, and the patch, or portions of 
it, covered thickly with oak brush with the leaves 
on, or with leaves from the woods and a httle brush 
without leaves thrown on them, and the turnips will 



M AGRICULTURE. 

improve in the winter and afford early sallad in the 
spring. 

SECTION VIII. 

PEAS, PUMPKINS, ETC. 

The pea is getting into high repute as an impro- 
ver, and is a rich, cheap food for man and beast. 
The cornfield pea does best planted the last of May 
or the first of June, and is frequently sown to ad- 
vantage over the fields of corn when laid by, and 
on stubble land after wheat harvest. The crowder 
variety, perhaps, affords the greatest yield, but the 
large black-eye is preferred by the ladies for the ta- 
ble ; and there is a stock pea said to excel for stock 
and litter. Snaps are now commonly destroyed in 
the winter by a little bug that generates within 
them, but this can be prevented by having a late 
crop for seed, that will mature just before frost ; or 
if bunch snaps, it should be the second crop. Pump- 
kins and cymlins are well worthy of attention for 
cattle and hogs, and they can be produced in large 
quantities with very little labor. The cymlin crop 
affords good feed for hogs very early in the season 
when food is apt to be scanty, and they should be 
fed away while they are soft and can be easily bro- 
ken. They should be planted early in April, but 
pumpkins in May, in moist land; and they do well 



AGRICULTURE, 45 

with corn in the flats. Melons and other vine crops 
do best in a light, sandy soil, and are often raised 
with corn or tobacco. 



SECTION IX. 

TOBACCO. 

This is the great production of Virginia for re- 
plenishing an empty purse, but a rage for it will 
destroy the face of any country, not because it ex- 
hausts our lands, but consumes our time. A full 
crop keeps us in a race from January to January, 
and allows no time to attend to lands, manures, 
stock, or anything else. But what we call a half a 
crop might be cultivated without much inconve- 
nience : and being, of course, more nicely managed 
and of better quality, would bring as much money. 
The plant takes its name from Tobago, an island in 
the West Indies, and is generally used as a luxury, 
and often to our injury. Some directions for raising 
it are taken from an article written by Mr. J. F. 
Edmunds, Esq. of Charlotte, a judicious and suc- 
cessful planter and farmer, and published in the 
Farmers Encyclopoedia : '* The land for the plant 
bed is usually selected in a warm place on a south 
or southeastern side of a hill in a wood, new ground 
being always preferred. From this the roots should 



46 AGRICULTURE. 

be grubbed, the rubbish cleared away and the old 
leaves raked off. Brush of pine or other wood is 
then to be piled on three or four feet thick, and this 
is to be set on fire, or a part of it may be fired for 
an hour or so at a time — proceeding thus over the 
whole bed. The place is then to be broken up 
with hoes, and sometimes with coulters drawn by 
horses or oxen, and the work repeated until the 
earth is made perfectly fine, being careful to avoid 
turning under the surface. All the roots should 
then be extracted and the land laid off in beds 4 
feet wide — a little elevated if wet ; and to 16 square 
yards a common pipe bowl of seed is sown.'* In 
regard to the cultivation and management, Mr. Ed- 
munds says : " The land for tobacco should be of 
the best quality, either newly cleared and virgin 
soil, or old ground highly manured and well pul- 
verized. The culture is very much like that adopt- 
ed for Indian corn : the plough, cultivator and hand 
hoe being freely used to keep down weeds and 
loosen the earth. In about three months after set- 
ting out, the plants assume a spotted and yellowish 
appearance, indicating that they have attained suf- 
ficient maturity for cutting and housing. This stage 
of the tobacco culture is generally reckoned the 
most difficult and delicate part of the whole busi- 
ness, and the most judicious hands should be se- 
lected for cutters. In curing, we commence our 



AGRICULTURE. 47 

warming fires the day after housing, and we keep 
them up from 36 to 48 hours : the mercury ranging 
from lOOo to 115o. The fires should be kept 
steady, with a gradual increase of heat to 150° or 
160° until the tobacco is cured." But now the 
purchasers prefer more sun and less fire, which is 
attended with less danger, and it is a great saving 
of time and fuel. 



SECTION X. 

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, ETC. 

As our object should be to plough deep, we should 
select the large dagon called the Livingston, or one 
similar, as it cuts the deepest furrow and affords 
the easiest draft to the team — being long and sharp 
like a wedge. A coulter should not have angles in 
its shank, but a regular curve, hke a semicircle. 
With a large point it is very useful in dry seasons 
in cultivating corn and tobacco ; but in breaking up 
new ground, the point should be very narrow. 
Hoes for grubbing should have no curve in the 
blade, but be perfectly straight: and the helves 
should not be round, but a little flattened. We 
should have a few jyrong hoes, made with three long 
teeth, instead of a blade, for digging up long, coarse 
litter. The pole of an axe should be nearly as 



48 AGRICULTURE. 

heavy as the blade, and in grinding it should be held 
with a firm grip in the hand, that there be no con- 
vexity or unevenness in the bevel. I have been 
surprised to see how few people have their straw 
cutters in condition for work, so that not only their 
forage is wasted, but their horses are not half fed. 
A good corn sheller is an important article to save 
time when we use much meal for stock : and one 
sufficient for a small family can be had for $10. 
The best threshing machines that we have seen 
have, in addition to the common apparatus, a bag 
open at both ends stretched behind the cylinder to 
prevent the wheat from scattering, and to throw it 
on a plank frame below that has holes in the bottom 
to serve as a riddle, and by a vibratory motion 
cleans the wheat of the straw, and by the same 
motion the straw is gradually' borne off beyond the 
dust to a convenient distance for stacking. There 
should be shelters for ploughs, hoes, &c., and one 
with benches and brakes for making gates, ploughs, 
helves, &c. in bad weather; and we would say 
there should be a place for every tool and every 
tool in its place. 



AGRICULTURE. 49 

SECTION XL 

DRAINING AND IRRIGATION. 

Great injury is sustained all over the country by 
neglecting to drain not only marshes, but little 
oozings on the hill sides, and thus the best lands 
produce less than the poor ridges ; but thorough 
draining makes our fields productive and our homes 
salubrious. And it is astonishing to see how much 
surplus muck or rich mould, well adapted to poor 
land, if dried and pulverized, may be taken from a 
small place. Many of us have, in this item, an in- 
conceivable amount of wealth ; for one of my 
neighbors has enough in one field to employ a team 
100 years, and he has not carried off the first load. 
It is excellent for corn and small grain, but not so 
good for tobacco. No farmer ought to have open 
drains or ditches where they can be avoided, as 
they occupy some of his best land, soon get in- 
fested with briars and bushes, are liable to fill up, 
and are in the way of his teams in ploughing, so that 
in turning round they break down and destroy his 
crops. The cheapest covered drain is made of 
three pine poles, with the brush thrown in upon 
them, and then the earth ; but to fill up a foot deep 
with very small stones or gravel is more perma- 
nent. Irrigation is not, we think, sufficiently re- 
3 



S^ AGRICULTURE. 

garded in our ordinary crops. We have vast 
quantities of water, charged with fertilizing ele- 
ments, passing on to the ocean under our eye, and 
we make no effort to arrest them ; and as a country 
becomes more cleared up, it is more sul>ject to long 
dry spells, which produce sometimes almost a total 
failure in the crops. Wherever streams are turned 
out on grass, stubble, or even any crop, except to- 
bacco and wheat, the improvement is very visible ; 
but especially should it be done in the fall and win- 
ter, when practicable, on waste lands, pastures or 
meadows. No doubt the wisdom of coming gene- 
rations will invent great improvements upon this 
branch of our subject. Even our little hill side 
ditches can be made to empty on w^aste lands and 
impart fertility, or in low, boggy places to elevate 
ihem and mingle sand with their stiff pipe clays, 
and improve their texture. 



SECTION XII. 

FUEL AND FENCING. 

The majority of farmers should curtail, by one- 
half, the surface of their arable land, and let trees 
and shrubbery take possession, which will both im- 
prove the soil and furnish timber fur coming gene- 
rations. Much of our fuel may be obtained from 



AGRICULTURE. 61 

decayed trees in the forest, cut and hauled when 
the land is loo wet lo be ploughed. But pine does 
well if kept elevated from the earth, and it affords 
fine logs for building, if they are hewed on two 
sides. To save fuel, chimneys should have a throat 
only four inches deep, and the fire place should be 
splayed on each side to an angle of about 45 de- 
grees to reflect the heat. Pine, cut for rails, should 
lie a few monlhs before they are split, that the bark 
may decjiy sufficiently to fall off, and they will last 
longer. Many iences are rather a source of offence 
than defence; but bad gaps and gales make more 
bad slock than bad fences. By attending w^ell to 
these, 3'ou can trjiin 3'our stock not to jump a fence 
four feet high. I was once opposed to what is 
called the fence law, requiring every man to keep 
his stock upon his own premises, lest it might bear 
hard upon the poor; but even upon the score of 
interest 1 have made it a law to myself for many 
3'ears. The most of people suffer more in the loss 
of stock, time and manure, than the little range is 
worth. In one respect the poor man would have 
the advantage in turning his crop out instead of his 
stock, as it requires more rails to enclose a small 
field in proportion to the number of acres enclosed, 
than it does a large one, and this extra expense 
falls upon the poor man. 



^i AGRICULTURE. 

SECTION XIII. 

STOCK RAISING AND FATTENING. 

There is some advantage in a good breed of 
horses, cattle and sheep, but not much in the breed 
of hogs, as they improve more by good keeping than 
any other animals. Our fault is, to keep loo much 
stock ; for, as a matter of economy as well as plea- 
sure, all animals should be kept fat and thrifty, or 
not kept at all. A horse that is in the habit of be- 
ing fat, will not eat as much as a poor one, and 
will perform more service and sell for about double 
the price. The corn for feed should generally be 
ground, but if that cannot be afforded, we should 
soak it in brine before feeding. Except for pur- 
poses of necessity and charity, corn should not be 
carried from the farm, but fed away to our ani- 
mals, and after we have enriched our lands by 
their manure, we can sell them. Mr. J. R. Ed- 
munds truly says : '* x\t the usual range of prices 
between corn and pork, it is more profitable to feed 
than to sell." Hogs for pork should not be kept 
more than 12 or 18 months, and should average 
200 pounds. The way to do it is to keep them up 
in close pens, wnth plank floors, the most of the 
year — at least from harvest time until they are 
killed--lhat they may have nothing to do but eat 



AGRICULTURE. 63 

and sleep ; but they should have salt and ashes 
once a week, and occasionally copperas and sul- 
phur. I once had a pen of hogs so surfeited by 
heavy feeding with corn when first put up, that they 
all contracted a liver disease, which checked their 
thrift and diminished their weight about one-half; 
and therefore great caution should be observed to 
keep them hearty and healthy with a proportion of 
light diet; and the slops should be kept in a swill 
tub and made sour. If we can dispense with half 
our tobacco and make as much money by it, we can 
certainly raise pork, beef, mutton, horses and mules 
for all our markets and mechanics. Sheep can be 
raised with very little expense, but they require 
regular attention and a little salt twice a week. 
Wet pastures do not suit them, and they should 
stay in no place more than a month without a 
change of locality. 



SECTION XIV. 

THE WAY TO WEALTH. 

We will conclude our treatise on agriculture by 
some extracts from the essay of Dr. Franklin, en- 
titled " The Way to Wealih." 

" It would be thought a hard government that 
would tax its people one-tenth part of their time, to 



64 AGRICULTURE. 

be employed in its service ; but idleness tnxes 
many of us much more, if we r(H:l\on nil ihat is 
spent in absolute sloih, or in idle eiiiployments or 
amusements that amount to nothino:. Slodi, like 
rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the 
key often used is always bright, as Poor Richard 
says. Bat dost thou love life? then do not squan- 
der time, for that is the stuff' life is made of. How 
much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep? 
forgetting that the sleeping fox catches no poultry, 
as Poor Richard says. Lost time is never found 
again, and what we call lime enough, always 
proves little enough. He that rises late must trol 
all day, and will scarce overtake his business at 
night. Drive thy business and let not thy business 
drive thee, as Poor Richard saj^s. And again, 
there are no gains without pains, then help me my 
hands, for I have no lands. At the working man's 
house hunger looks in but dares not enter. Nor will 
the sheriff* or constable enter; for industry pays 
debts, but despair increaseih them. Then plough 
deep while sluggards sleep, and you will have corn 
both to sell and to keep. Work while it is called 
to-day, for you know not how much you may be 
hindered to-morrow. If you were a good servant, 
would you not be ashamed that your master should 
catch you idle? then be ashamed to catch yourself 
idle. Handle your tools without mittens, for the 



AGRICULTURE. 65 

cat in gloves catches no mice, as Poor Richard 
snys. Mclhinks I hear some of you say, ' Musi a 
man afford himself no leisure?' A life of leisure 
and a life of laziness are two things. Leisure is 
lime for doing someting useful; this leisure the 
diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never. 

*' So much for industry, my friends; but to this 
we must add frugality if we would make our in- 
dustry successful. A man may, if he knows not 
how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to 
the grind stone, and die not worth a groat at last. 
A fat kitchen makes a lean will, as Poor Richard 
says. 

"And many estates are squandered liy getting, 
Since women for satin cease spinning and knitting, 
And men for whisky their hewing and splitting." 

"What maintains one vice would bring up two 
children. Beware of little expenses ; a small leak 
will sink a great ship. Who dainties love, shall 
beggars prove; and again, fools make feasts and 
wise men eat them. Buy what you need not, and 
ere long you must sell what you need. A plough- 
man on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his 
knees. Pride took break fist with Plenty, dined 
wiih Poverty, and supped with Infamy. For 
poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and 
virtue. It is hard for an empty bag to stand 



56 AGRICULTURE. 

Upright, as Poor Richard says in his Almanack. 
This doctrine, nny friends, is reason and wisdom ; 
but after all, do not depend too much upon your 
own industry, frugality and prudence, though they 
are excellent things, for they may be blasted with- 
out the blessing of Heaven. Therefore, ask that 
blessing humbly, and be not uncharitable to those 
that at present seem to want it, but comfort and 
help them. Remember Job suffered and was after- 
wards prosperous." 



PART II. 
MEDICINE. 



Presuming that Cutler's Anatom/ and Physio- 
logy, or someibing equivalent, has been studied by 
the classes, we would offer this short and imperfect 
treatise on the praciice of medicine. Dr. Rush 
says, *' Nurses and old \A'omen often suggest facts 
in the history and cure of diseases, which have 
escaped the most sagacious observers of nature.'* 
But still there ought to be great caution and delibe- 
ration observed in offering prescriptions, as life is 
at stake. A wise and prudent man in this way 
may do a great deal of good in imitation of Christ, 
who introduced his mission by '* healing all manner 
of disease among the people;" and missionaries 
find it necessary to carry with them a knowledge 
of the healing art, as well as other arts, to over- 
come the prejudices of the heathen. 



68 MEDICINE. 

SECTION L 

THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE. 

In the first place, we would say that we should 
endeavor so to live as to let medicine alone. My 
grandmother lived to be upwards of ninety years 
old and niised a large family of children, and never 
spent a dollar in paying physicians' bills ; but she 
had a good constitution and led an active life. The 
old adage is true, *' An ounce of prevention is 
worth a pound of cure." A temperate man may 
be much exposed to weather or breathe pestilential 
vapors and yet escape unhurt, while a gross feeder 
will take cold in the best weather, or die of a fever 
when there is no epidemic. The stomach is the 
great source of disease and debihiy, as well as of 
health and vigor. By regarding premonitory symp- 
toms, many diseases in their incipient stages may 
be starved out, by light diet with good exercise. 
Observe in yourself the effect of your daily meals 
and other indulgences, and act accordingly, and 
3^ou may soon become to a great extent your own 
physician. Dr. Franklin says, "If after exercise 
we feed sparingly, the digestion will be easy and 
good, the body lightsome, the temper cheerful, and 
all the animal functions performed agreeably. 
Sleep when it follows will be natural and un- 



MEDICINE. 69 

disturbed ; while indolence with full feeding occa- 
sions nightmares and horrors inexpressible." We 
should not only regard the quantity but the quality 
of the food and the manner of eating. Half cooked 
meat, close tough bread, hot coffee and fast eating 
are injurious. A free use of tobacco immediately 
after eating and the use of ardent spirits are calcu- 
lated to destroy the tone of the digestive organs. 
Thus, by ignorance or wanton indulgence we suffer 
pain, lose our time, incur expense, weaken our 
energy of body and mind, and hurry ourselves to 
an untimely grave. But after all necessary caution 
and care, so little knowledge and power have we, 
that diseases will come, and we should all possess 
some knowledge of the healing art ; and as a good 
general rule, it is said we should keep the bowels 
and pores open, the head cool, and the feet warm. 
But diseases are so numerous, symptoms are so 
various, and constitutions so different, that we must 
not only be close observers, but consult the best 
judges and draw our resources from the wisdom 
of ages. We should not be deterred from this 
important duty by a few hard w^ords j for they 
generally signify very simple things. 



60 MEDICINE. 

SECTION n. 

PATHOLOGY. 

Pathology is derived from two Greek words, 
'pathos^ feeling, and logos, a discourse, and signifies 
a discourse about feeling pain, or in other words 
about the causes and symptoms of disease. But 
before we enter upon the subject, we would say the 
science of medicine has been studied in all ages of 
the world, and was reduced to a system by the 
Greeks and Romans, and the terms they used have 
been transmitted to us, and are still in use as most 
appropriate ; and if we are not acquainted with the 
dead languages, we can learn the signification of 
the terms in a dictionary or glossary. Says Homer, 
in the Iliad : 

^' A wise physician skilled our wounds to heal, 
Is more than armies to the public weal." 

It is a little remarkable that EwelPs Medical 
Companion, written nearly fifty years ago, and sup-i 
posed by some to have become too antiquated for 
the present day, describes the diseases of the past 
year or two with great exactness. He says : " Du- 
ring the winter and spring, pleurisies, pneumonias, 
quinsies, rheumatisms and inflammatory fevers prC' 
vail. Toward the end of summer and in autumn, 
intermittent and remittent fevers, with dysenteries 



MEDICINE. 61 

and putrid ulcerous sore throats, make their appear- 
ance." We have had the most of these in our 
family and neighborhood, and many of our friends 
have been taken off by the dysentery, which has 
become the most formidable of all our maladies. 
Pathology may also be defined morbid anatomy and 
physiology, as it imphes a derangement in the solids 
or fluids of the animal economy. But to be more 
particular, it embraces, 1st nosology, (from nosos a 
disease, and logos a discourse,) which signifies an ac- 
count of diseases and of their differences ; 2d, aeti- 
ology, (from (Btia a cause, and logos a discourse,) 
signifying an account of the causes of disease ; 3d, 
symptomatology, (from symptornata symptoms, and 
logos a discourse,) signifying an account of the 
symptoms of disease ; 4th, therapeia, (from thera- 
peuo to heal,) implying the proper treatment of dis- 
ease. Skill in this department is called diagnosis, 
(from dia thoroughly, and gnosco to know,) signify- 
ing the ability to distinguish different diseases ; and 
while it is very important, it is very difficult as im- 
plied in the proverb, " A knowledge of the disease 
is half the cure." And prognosis is the ability to 
prognosticate or foretell the final result. Diseases 
may be either structural or functional, the first re- 
lating to diseased organs, and the second to diseased 
action. Mistakes are often made by supposing a 
disease is located where the pain is, when it is the 



62 MEDICINE. 

effect of sympathy with the diseased or disordered 
organ, which is less sensitive. Thus, a disordered 
stomach is often not felt in that region, but is fol- 
lowed by a severe headache, or by pains in the 
limbs and general debility. Diseases also have re- 
mole and proximate causes which require careful 
consideration. Diseases are either acute or chronic, 
intermittent, remittent or continued. 



SECTION III. 

THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 

It seems f/om Dr. Chapman's remarks on the 
nature of life, that *' Every living body, animal or 
vegetable, is endowed with a primordial princijyle of 
life, and which, being resident in the ova of animals 
and the seed of plants, constitutes the power by 
which in the first place the various organs are 
moulded, developed and perfected, and by which 
afterwards the animal economy is defended against 
the action of mechanical and chemical laws." 
There is a diversity of opinion as to what element 
of nature constitutes the principle of vitality, but I 
presume from the experiments of Galvani upon a 
dead frog, which gave rise to the science of galvan- 
ism, and similar experiments since made upon 
human bodies, that it is the electric fluid. This ap- 



MEDICINE. 63 

pears to be the connecting link between matter and 
mind, flesh and spirit, and is employed by the 
spirit to carry out the volitions of the mind through 
the nervous system. There is also a difference of 
opinion concerning the operation of medicines, the 
most of modern writers supposing that their im- 
pression is extended through the system by sympa- 
thy, and others have thought they entered into the 
circulation, and thus by a sort of chemical action, 
they correct the vitiated condition of the fluids. 
This last view of disease and curative agents is 
called the humoral pathology ; but it is not so im- 
portant to know the modus operandi as the ficts. 
Dr. Elliotson says: "It is ordained by Providence 
to a great extent, that the injurious causes to which 
we are exposed should have but a temporary effect. 
Either the body has the power of resistance or the 
causes exist temporarily ; either from being applied 
but temporarily to the body, or from being able to 
exert no more than a temporary influence. This 
power of the body to shake off' its morbid state is 
called by writers vis medicatrix nnlur(B, the curative 
power of nature. For example, when acrid mat- 
ters are taken into the stomach, the stomach has 
a tendency to reject them ; or if they be passed 
through the stomach into the intestines, the intes- 
tines are excited to action, and they are got rid 
of." He also says : *' In the treatment of many 
diseases, as well as in their prevention, we act m- 



64 MEDICINE. 

tionally ; we proceed upon general principles ; and 
the whole treatment is in the highest degree philo- 
sophical. We naake an accurate diagnosis in the 
first instance ; we then see what is wrong in the 
state of the system, and employ such means as are 
evidently calculated to remove that state. But in 
certain diseases and in certain varieties of disease 
we are obliged to act empirically — to act in a certain 
way without knowing why we are likely to be suc- 
cessful. The treatment of ague, of itch, and of 
syphilis is empirical, for it is impossible to know 
why a few grains of sulphate of quinine will cure 
ague, why a few grains of sulphur will cure the 
itch, and wh}'' syphilis will cease sooner if we exhi- 
bit mercury than if we do not." He says more- 
over, that *' A disease may appear evidently to point 
out the necessity of a certain mode of treatment, 
but a peculiarity of the individual relating to par- 
ticular articles of food, or in relation to the presence 
of some other disease, may render it exceedingly 
improper, 

SECTION IV. 

GASTRITIS. 

The word gastritis is derived from gaster, the 
stomach and ids inflamalion, and signifies an inflam- 
mation in the stomach. As the digestive organs 
take the lead in giving life, health and vigor to the 



MEDICINE. 65 

system, we will first consider diseases connected 
with them and the remedies. Dr. Gregory remarks 
that *' the pathology of the mucous membrane of 
the alimentary canal is a subject of great extent 
and importance ; but it has not yet been investi- 
gated with all the accuracy which it deserves. 
While some parts of it are well understood, others 
are involved in a degree of obscurity, which it will 
require a long course of observation to clear up. 
One of the most obvious of its general principles, 
is the great liability of the membrane to inflamma- 
tion. Such an affection occurs both in an acute 
and chronic form, as idiopathic and as supervening 
on other diseases in adults and in children. There 
appears to be a peculiar tenderness and suscepti- 
biHty of inflammation in this membrane during the 
first 3^ears of life, and this points out the great im- 
portance of regulating the diet of children with the 
most scrupulous care." As the circulation of the 
blood is more rapid in children, they must eat more 
frequently than adults, but they are more liable to 
disease, both from the tenderness of their organs and 
their indiscretion, and parents should be their watch- 
ful guardians upon this vital point. The brutes 
have an unerring instinct to guide them in taking 
the proper quantity and quality of food, but fallen 
man has no presiding divinity within him to keep 
him from destruction, and consequently thousands 



68 MEDICINE. 

of children of vigorous constilntions are cut off by 
llie ignorance or neglect of iheir parents; or railier 
by excessive kindness and indulgence. Gastritis is 
characterised by constant pain in the pit of the 
stomach, attended with nausea and vomiting, and 
soinetimes with great heat and thirst. It may pro- 
ceed from an3ahing calculated to irritate the sto- 
mach by eating or drinking, or from sudden emo- 
tions of the mind. Leeches should be applied, but 
the stomach should be kept as quiet as possible, and 
the bowels kept open l)y injections. It frequently 
occurs in cormection with er3'Sipplas, and is some- 
limes evanescent, and will go away without treat- 
ment if we keep the patient low. 



SECTION V. 

ENTERITIS AND COLIC. 

This word comes from cnteron, an intestine, and 
signifies an inflammation of the ilium or small intes- 
tines. It may proceed from irregular habits of lite, 
from cold or wet, or may follow measles, consump- 
tion or continued fever. Colic is spasm, with the 
pulse natural and the pain irreguhir, but in this, the 
pain at the navel is constant, although not of uni- 
form intensity, and there is great costivrness. The 
pulse is hard or wiery, and there is nausea and vo- 



MEDICINE. 67 

mlting. The pain is incrensed by pressure, but in 
colic il is relieved by it. We must bleed from a 
large orifice without mercy, cover the nbdomen 
with leeches and exhibit huge doses of calomel if 
there is strength in the patient. But the disease 
may proceed from hernia, and require different 
treatment. A drop of crolon oil every two or three 
hours is good, or oil of turpentine and injections. 
As colic is nearly of the same character, it may also 
be treated much in the same manner; but opium 
may be combined with the calomel. In mild cases 
mint or ginger tea or a glass of brandy will give 
relief, and hot bath or flannel wrung out of hot 
water applied over the abdomen. Bilious colic 
may proceed from acid and indigestible food, and 
is apt to occur at the same time with diarrhoea, 
cholera and jaundice, and may be fairly imputed 
to an increased and vitiated secretion of bile. Rub- 
bing laudanum on the abdomen or applying a blis- 
ter has a decided effect, when through irritability 
the stomach rejects medicines. 



SECTION Vt. 

DYSENTERY. 

It appears that the principal seat of this formida- 
ble disase is the inner membrane of the great intes- 



68 MEDICINE. 

tines or colon. In general it appears to be the ef- 
fect of hot, dry summers and marsh effluvia, and 
among us has been more malignant in low, marshy 
regions, and attended frequently with remittent 
fever. "In this case," says Dr. Potter of Balti- 
more, *' the remittent is the epidemic, and it occurs 
in the autumn. This is usually a more inflamma- 
tory fever, and requires a more vigorous procedure 
to cure it. It is always accompanied with a con- 
gested state of the hver, and frequently by a sus- 
pended secretion of bile and obstinate constipation 
of the intestines." Dr. Colhoun says, "Dysentery 
is distinguished from diarrhoea by the tenesmus, 
bloody stools and general fever, which characterizes 
it." Dr. Elliotson says, " In it there is spasm and in- 
flammation together, and both obstruction and purg- 
ing. The term dysentery derives its character from 
dus^ bad or sickly, and enteron, an intestine. In ad- 
dition to hot weather and bad air, bad food and bad 
water have a tendency to produce it. Last summer 
I stated to an aged physician in one of the lower 
counties, where the disease was raging, that I did 
not like the water there, and thought it had a bad 
influence on the health ; but he said he did not be- 
lieve water had much to do with health. Dr. El- 
liotson says, "Itis undoubtedly produced sometimes 
by bad food and likewise by bad water." But per- 
haps the greatest danger arises from excessive eat- 



MEDICINE. 69 

ing and drinking, and thus deranging the functions 
of the hver. With regard to the cure, physicians 
differ very widely, and all remedies sometimes fail 
in very violent cases. I enquired of a 3^oung phy- 
sician a few months ago concerning his mode of 
treatment, and he told me his first object was to 
lock up the bowels; and he lost most of his patients. 
Dr. Stephenson of Baltimore srjs, " It is li'ke lock- 
ing the thief within the house to do all the mischief 
he can." When there is much fever, blood letting 
is important, and the exhibition of calomel com- 
bined with opium ; but some physicians consider 
mercury in any form dangerous, and prefer castor 
oil, spirits of turpentine, &c., together with anodyne 
injections. I have seen no physician who uses 
emetics in this disease ; but I have seen the hap- 
piest effects result from them, and they are recom- 
mended by Dr. Akenside. 



SECTION VI. 

DIARRHCEA. 

By diarrhoea (diarrhea to flow through) is meant 
frequent liquid and rather copious feculent stools. 
In dysentery the stools are not feculent, but some- 
limes of a pitch-like substance. Sometimes, instead 
of a mucus, there is thin serum ; and if we procure 



70 MEDICINE. 

a passage, the discharges are in hard lumps, and 
ihe pain is coDStaiil ; but in diarrhoea there is pain 
only at the time of evacuation, and the discharge 
is of all colors. Dr. Elli<»tson says " The causes 
of this disease are, in the first place, too much food. 
If a person eats a great deal, it must find its way 
out, and it does. Tiiere must be more cximrUition 
in proportion to the importation^ so that diarrhoea is 
a proper eflfort of nature to get rid of it. Malaria 
is enumerated among the causes, and cold after 
heat, and sometimes it follows measles. As to 
treatment of this disease, if it be slight, it is best to 
do nothing at all, and take no exercise ; but if it 
run on, various opiates and astringents are given ; 
and I have found by experience that a little calo- 
mel or blue pill is the most certain and speedy 
remedy. Diarrhoea, dysentery, enteritis, colic and 
cholera are artificially distinguished by the state of 
the alvine evacuation principally ; but as they all 
result from disturbed function of the intestinal canal, 
there is an intimate pathological affinity. 



SECTION VII. 

CHOLERA. 

This dreadful disease appears as yet to be con- 
fined to the cities and large water courses, and 



MEDICINE. 71 

seems destined to baffle the best medical skill and 
set at naught the wisdom of man. The best course 
perhaps will be to avoid the exciting causes, such 
as crude and indigestible fruits, cold and moisture, 
suppressed perspiration, acrid medicines and marsh 
mi.ismata. The cholera (from chola bile, and rco to 
flow) is characterised by a sudden attack of bilious 
vomiting and purging, with spasms and severe pain 
in the abdomen and calves of the legs, and in very 
bad cases, in the neck and back. Fifty drops of 
laudanum may be given in the first instance, and 
repeated to the extent of ten or fifteen drops every 
quarter of an hour; but Dr. Colhoun says, "The 
opium should be combined with calomel and given 
every two hours, or widi a saline effervescent 
draught in the form of laudanum; and if still re- 
jected, it may be given in the form of enema, giv- 
ing two grains each time. The nitric and sul- 
phuric acids, combined with cascarilla, chamomile 
or columbo tea, often arrest the vomiting. A heat- 
ed plate, bags of heated salt or sand, cloths wrung 
out of hot water applied to the stomach, frictions 
of laudanum over the abdomen and limbs; a cata- 
plasm of opium over the stomach ; a mustard poul- 
tice or blister of cantharides to the epigastrium ; 
nitric acid applied over the surface with a feaiher, 
and when its action has been sufficient, neutralized 
with carbonate of potass to preveal its sjpreading. 



72 MEDICINE. 

are the remedies." This should be accompanied 
with a diet of broth or beef tea to dihite the de- 
praved secretions in the intestinal canal. If the 
pulse is feeble, wine or brandy may be necessary, 
and a warm bath or hot bottles to the feet. 



SECTION VIII. 

HEPATITIS. 

This word is derived from /leper, the liver, and 
signifies inflammation in that organ, and it lies at 
the foundation of many diseases. It is very com- 
mon in the southern states among white people, 
who are apt to diet freely and drink spirituous li- 
quors, and live in idleness. In England it is so of- 
ten observed among the intemperate that it is call- 
ed a gin liver. But in a chronic form it is very trou- 
blesome to students, who indulge their appetite for 
food and tobacco, and take but little exercise, as I 
know by experience. But after many years of suf- 
fering and blundering in blindness in regard to the 
cause and cure, I have learned to live comfortably, 
by a proper attention to diet and exercise. It has 
been remarked that the hver in warm chmates 
seems to be the seat of disease nearly in the same 
proportion that the lungs are in cold regions ; and I 
find I always suffer more as the spring opens and 



MEDICINE. 73 

the weather gets warm. But as the lungs are in 
the vicinity of the liver, and in close contact, it is 
reasonable to believe that consumption may follow 
as the consequence of a liver affection by sympa- 
thy with persons predisposed to it. I think 1 have 
seen such cases, but writers, I believe, say nothing 
about it. Dr. Potter, however, gives an intimation 
upon the subject in these words : *' The inflamma- 
tioa spreads from the liver to the diaphragm, and 
along the pleura pulmonahs — the pus discharged 
by the bronchia passes through the channel occa- 
sioned by inflammation into the lungs, and not (we 
judge) by the direction of the vis medicatrix through 
the lymphatics." Hepatitis often ends in jaundice. 
*' If the ducts become thickened by chronic inflam- 
mation," says Dr. Elliotson, " if they become hy- 
pertrophied, their canal may be so much diminished 
that the bile cannot pass, and consequently we 
have jaundice." Gout and rheumatism and many 
cutaneous affections also follow a derangement of 
the digestive organs with persons of full habits. 
There is a most intimate connection between the 
stomach and liver, as we may observe in the diges- 
tive functions of brutes as well as ourselves. Year 
before last I had a pen of fattening hogs very much 
injured by a heavy surfeit of corn, and when they 
were slaughtered every liver v/as ulcerated and 
nearly destroyed. Last year I was strict to guard 
4 



74 MEDICINE. 

against the evil, and every liver was sound. A 
slight attack of hepatitis may be removed by atten- 
tion to hght diet, but calomel or blue pill commonly 
acts like a charm when the disorder is serious. 



SECTION IX. 

CONSUMPTION OR PHTHISIS. 

It seems hardly necessary to say anything about 
this dreadful scourge of the human race, as it is 
considered generally incurable, but no doubt some- 
thing may be done to prevent its occurrence. It 
exhibits two forms, one with tubercles on the lungs, 
and the other with abcesses ; but the distinction 
does not amount to much, as they give rise to near- 
ly the same train of symptoms, and often coexist. 
The symptoms are well known to be a fixed cough, 
a diflSculty of breathing, hectic fever, night sweats, 
and emaciation, spitting of blood, &c. Dr. Col- 
houn says, *' Consumption has been arrested by 
the supervention of other diseases, as abcesses and 
mania, facts which render probable the efficacy in 
this disease of extensive drains on the surface of 
the body." I had a female friend who had it for 
years, if the diagnosis of skillful physicians could be 
relied upon, and during the time she for a few 
months improved very much, and regained her 



MEDICINE. 75 

flesh, but a combination of domestic afflictions and 
other circumstances aggravated it, and she finally 
died. I should suppose then that large blisters, is- 
sues and seatons, and very spare vegetable diet, and 
other similar means, might save many cases if taken 
in hand early. 

Laennec relates ten out of many cases of the 
tubercular consumption which had been cured ; but 
Dr. BaiUie states that after the practice of a long 
life, he knew only one or two. Fresh air, a uniform 
temperature, warm clothing and moderate exercise 
are very important. Dr. Rush often cured it by a 
slight salivation, after using the antiphlogistic plan. 

Actoea racemosa has been used by Dr. Garden 
of Virginia, in this disease, wiih great success. 
Liebig says, " Hepatic diseases arise from excess of 
carbon, pulmonary diseases from excess of oxygen. 



SECTION X. 

PNEUMONIA AND PLEURISY. 

Pneumonia, from pneumon, a lung, is a very 
common and dangerous disease, and it is thought 
to be an inflammation in the air cells. The symp- 
toms resemble those of consumption, and the treat- 
ment in the main should be the same, especially 
venesection from a large orifice, cupping &c., and 



76 MEDICINE. 

they sboald be promptly used, lest a foundation be 
laid for consumption. I have seen salivation have 
a good effect, and emetics are recommended, to- 
gether with sinapisms and warm diaphoretic drinks. 
Pleurisy is a disease of the pleura, a serous mem- 
brane investing the lungs, generally attended with 
a hard, quick pulse and pain in the side. There is 
no crepitous rattle heard on listening at the affected 
part, as in pneumonia, and no sibilous rattle as in 
bronchitis, and the respiration is rapid. Bleeding, 
mercurializing, purging and starving will cure it 
just as easy as any other inflammation ; and to 
them may be added digitalis and colchicum in a 
saline mixture, with an excess of alkali to keep 
down the action of the heart and arteries, and to 
determine to the kidneys and skin. 



SECTION XL 

BRONCHITIS AND ASTHMA. 

Bronchitis (from bronchos, the windpipe) is an in- 
flammation of the bronchia or branches of the 
windpipe, at the lower end, which enter the lungs. 
The windpipe itself is called the trachea, and the 
upper end, that opens into the mouth, the larynx. 
Diseases in those parts are called tracheitis and 
laryngitis, and in children tracheitis is called croup. 



MEDICINE. 77 

Bronchitis is sometimes mistaken for asthma, which 
comes from asthmadzo, to gasp for breath ; is a 
spasmodic affection of the organs of respiration, 
attended with wheezing. A slight affection of these 
organs is called a catarrh. As bronchitis is very 
prevalent among our presbyterian clergy in par- 
ticular, I should think it did not result from preach- 
ing mainly, but from study and sedentary habits ; 
for " Dyspepsia and diseases of the liver," says 
Dr. Gregory, " are often attended by the common 
symptoms of chronic bronchitis." As in other pul- 
monary affections, blisters and aperients may be 
necessary if circumstances justify them, and a uni- 
form moderate temperature, warm clothing and 
light diet are indispensable. Dr. EUiotson says, 
*' Diuretics and emetics are of the greatest utility, 
and it is a good practice to combine digitalis and 
squills." It is said that croton oil, rubbed exter- 
nally on the throat, so as to produce an eruption, 
will effect a cure. Asthma in the main is treated 
in the same way. 



SECTIOxN XII. 

PALSY, EPILEPSY AND APOPLEXY. 

Paralysis is the result of that state which, in the 
first instance, is apoplectic, and frequently begins 



f8 MEDICINE. 

with coma or apoplexy, but commonly affects either 
one side or the lower half of the body. The cause 
may be a mere fullness about the head, and some- 
limes there is found a serous effusion in the brain, 
or an effusion of blood. If the disease appear to 
be of an inflammatory nature — if the head be hot, 
attended with pain and delirium, then common 
antiphlogistic treatment should be put in practice, 
such as bleeding, purging, leeching, mercurializing, 
applying cold and starving the patient ; but we 
must be on our guard not to go too far. A lady of 
my acquaintance, who was deranged for many 
months, was cured by pouring a quantity of cold 
water on her head. Iodine will act as well as mer- 
cury ; but it is only proper when rubbed in as an 
ointment, or given internally in combination with 
potassa. If there is great debility, tonics and good 
food may be employed. Insanity, as Dr. Elliotson 
remarks, is no doubt a corporeal disease, connected 
with the pathology of the brain ; and when medi- 
cines or other diseases counteract the determination 
of the fluids to the head, they recover. Physicians 
mention cases where recovery occurred a few hours 
before death ; and I had an uncle who was exactly 
a similar case, who had lost his reason by epileptic 
fits. In epilepsy the cerebellum (the little brain) is 
more particularly diseased, but is often connected 
with the disease of the stomach, liver, intestines, 
heart and lungs. 



MEDICINE. 79 

SECTION XIII. 

MANIA, NEURALGIA, ETC. 

It is well known that drinking ardent spirits in- 
temperately produces mania, and that eating hearty 
suppers will bring on nightmare and other horrors: 
and, of course, abstinence is the best remedy. But, 
with the poet, thousands can say: 

"I Bee the right, and I approve it too, 
I hate the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue." 

It is hardly possible to mark the boundaries of 
reason and insanity in every case, as there is every 
grade of genius, from the moping idiot or raving 
maniac to the greatest philosopher ; but as mental 
operations depend much upon corporeal function, 
much may be done by us to weaken or strengthen 
the mind. A sound body is apt to make a sound 
mind, and we may say invariably does ; but bad 
health, mental anguish, and other causes, have 
filled our lunatic asylums to overflowing, and yet 
many ^re left behind upon the hands of their friends. 
Neuralgia is an aflTection of the nerves, and is not 
very well understood. It sometimes proceeds from 
a. disordered stomach, and emetics, cathartics, &c. 
are beneficial. Dr. Jackson of Boston has given 
cicuta {hemlock) with good effect. When there is 
no inflammation, stimuli may give relief. 



so MEDICINES 

SECTION XIV. 

EROPSY AND STRANGUARY. 

Dropsy is caused b}^ excessive drinking, poor 
diet, immoderate bleedings and salivations, and 
sometimes by scirrhous tumors of the liver or ab- 
dominal viscera. It has been said with much truth, 
that dropsy is rather a symptom of disease than a 
disease itself. There is always a process of ex- 
halation and absorption going on through all the 
tissues of the animal body, in addition to the circu- 
lation of the blood, and whatever disturbs the equili- 
brium is calculated to produce dropsy; but as the 
blood vessels have a great agenc}^ in it, they should 
be supplied with the proper quantity and quality of 
the vital fluid. Nature makes, to some extent, a 
kind provision for our irregularities and the influ- 
ence of seasons. In warm weather, when the per- 
spiration is abundant, the urine is concentrated and 
scant}'' ; in winter, it is strikingly augmented ; and 
when this secretion is disturbed by the presence of 
bile, the urine is deepl}^ tinged, and often slranguary 
is the consequence. This commonly attends only 
people whose powers of digestion are feeble and 
their teeth bad, if they indulge their appetite for 
food and take but little exercise. I had a case of 
dropsy cured in my family mostly by leeching and 



MEDICINE. 81 

Starving; but if there is great debility, tonics and 
nourishing food should be given, and especially 
garlic and onions. Exercise is of the greatest im- 
portance when not carried to fatigue. 



SECTION XV. 

RHEUMATISM AND GOUT. 

Bellonious, a physician who suffered much from 
rheumatism, is said to have been the first who made 
an accurate distinction between these diseases. 
Rheumatism may occur in an active or passive 
form, and the two varieties require very opposite 
treatment. There is commonly pain and swelling in 
the large joints, as ankles, knees, hips and shoulders, 
and I now have it in one of my shoulders. Dr. El- 
liotson says : " There is, I believe, but one existing 
cause of the disease, and that is the application of 
cold, or cold and wet ;" but in our case it proceeds 
from derangement of the digestive organs — a cause 
which Dr. Prout admits, and which I have often 
known to produce it — and it occurs without the least 
exposure. When this is the case, we must direct 
our attention to the stomach and liver. Mercury 
appears to be equally useful in both kinds of rheu- 
matism, and in the chronic a grain of stramonium 

(thorn apple) acts well. Gout affects the smaller 
4# 



82 MEDICINE. 

joints, as the toes, feet, &c., and is very severe. 
Sydenham, in writing of his own sufferings, com- 
pares them to the gnawing of a dog. It generally 
occurs with robust people of full habits. To cure 
it, the patient should be very abstemious and lake 
exercise. Colchicum (meadow saffron) is the best 
medicine, it is thought, and friction is useful. 



SECTION XVI. 

INTERMITTENT AND REMITTENT FEVER. 

An intermittent fever will cease entirely at inter- 
vals and recur again, and is understood to be the 
effect of malaria ; but it is often dependent upon 
exciting causes more or less under our control. If 
the return of its paroxysms occurs daily, it is called 
a quotidian ; if every other day, it is termed a ter- 
tian. Some years it is very prevalent on our streams, 
and quinine or oak bark is the best remedy to be 
used in the time of the intermission or ague ; but 
emetics or purgatives should first be given. And 
change of location is very necessary. The remit- 
tent or bilious fever undergoes som^ relaxation of 
severity at certain periods, and requires more prompt 
and energetic measures of depletion, and commonly 
blood-letting. Calomel is the most efficacious ca- 
thartic. This and the yellow fever have a resem- 



MEDICINE. #B 

blance, and are both extinguished on the approach 
of cold weather. But they have been awfully fatal, 
particularly the latter, during the past season, on our 
western waters. Our best hope is in avoiding ex- 
cesses in eating and drinking, and needless expo- 
sure to hot sun and night air. Dr. Colhoun says, 
** We should avoid both great abstinence and in- 
temperance, and eating and drinking improper food, 
as acids, rich sauces, pies, and high seasoning in 



SECTION XVII. 

CONTINUED FEVER. 

Continued fever has but little deviation to the 
end, and there is quickness and smallness of pulse, 
heat, thirst, high colored urine, costiveness and dry 
skin. This was a fatal disease among us the last 
season. If great symptoms of debihty appear it is 
called typhus, from tupho, to smoulder. Sometimes 
there is great nausea and loathing of food, and at 
other times a voracious appetite. Dr. Satterly men- 
tions the case of a boy that would eat at one meal 
a pound and a half of beef steaks or a couple of 
rabbits without satisfying his appetite ; and I have 
known them stealthily to eat the candles left in the 
room with them. It is said to be a disease in the 
glands of the small intestines, and being so far re- 



84 MEDICINE. 

moved from the stomach leaves it healthy, and by 
a degree of inflammation sometimes makes it more 
craving. Ventilation and cleanliness are indispen- 
sable, and chloride of lime should be sprinkled over 
the room. Blood letting, purging and vomiting are 
-generally necessary; but if there is diarrhoea, astrin- 
gent medicines should be used to some extent ; and 
the blue pill then is preferable to calomel. And 
strong beef tea is a good article of diet, together 
with Madeira or Port wine. This type of the dis- 
ease is most generally denominated typhoid fever. 



SECTION XVIIl. 

SCARLET FEVER AND MEASLES. 

Till the close of the 18th century these diseases 
were considered the same, or two varieties ot 
the same disease ; and the same mistake has re- 
cendy been made by some of our physicians, when 
the measles first appeared among us ; but the scar- 
let fever among children has been much the most 
fatal. About a year ago 15 died in one neighbor- 
hood not far from us ; and one man who had four, 
lost all. An emetic is generally good, and gargling 
pepper in the throat, and the patient should have 
fresh air and be kept cool and clean. Leeches 
about the throat are preferable to a blister. In 



MEDICINE. 85 

measles it is only necessary to keep the bowels 
open with occasional calharlics, and the skin moist 
\viih leas and ihe warm bath. But there is great 
danger after gelling well, lest cold be taken and ihe 
lungs become inflamed, and death ensue. Many 
deaths have occurred wiihin the last year or two, 
among young people, from this heedlessness. 



SECTION XIX. 

THE PEPPER SYSTEM. 

As some people prefer the Thompsonian prac- 
tice, we will give a synopsis of the system : 

No. 1 is composed of lobelia ivjlata, as Linnaeus 
calls it, and is a very eflficient emetic. Three tea- 
spoonfuls of powder put into pepper tea and 
sweetened with brown sugar, is a dose. 

No. 2 is cayenne pepper simply, to be used in al- 
most every stage of the remedial process, to stimu- 
late the languid functions, particularly before and 
after steaming. 

No. 3 is called composition, and composed of ^th 
of bayberry (myrisa cerifera) root, or sumach (rhus 
glabrum) root or the berries, Jih of the inner bark 
of the hemlock or poplar bark tree, Jth of ginger, 
l-16ih of cloves and l-16ih of pepper. This, 
taken in large quantities, is a powerful diaphoretic, 
to be usfed while steaming* 



86 MEDICINE. 

No. 4 is poplar bark tea, with pepper and spi- 
rits, to be used as a tonic bitter. 

No. 5 is called peach syrup, made of kernels 
from peach seed, poplar bark and bayberry bark, 
all boiled together, with the addition of sugar and 
brandy. This is considered as strengthening to 
weak patients. 

No. 6 is composed of pepper, myrrh and spirit 
of brandy, and is a powerful expectorant and sti- 
mulant. 

No. 7 is American senna, (cassia marylandica,) 
half an ounce, sage half an ounce, and ginger a 
teaspoonful, and steeped together fifteen minutes 
and sweetened with sugar. Half that quantity is 
taken as a dose on going to bed ; and it is con- 
sidered a most efficient cathartic. But an emetic 
of lobelia should first be given to cleanse the sto- 
mach ; and it is given in broken doses every two 
hours to relax the system and promote perspiration. 
The steaming is effected by putting hot rocks into 
a tub of water, and placing the patient over it 
wrapped up in blankets while taking the tea. 



MEDICINE. 87 

SECTION XX. 

HYGEIAN ECONOMY. 

In regard to exercise, some feel best to walk or 
work immediately after eating: others should be 
still for about an hour. And in regard to diet, let 
every man judge for himself what article suits him ; 
for what is one man's meat is another man's poison ; 
but the stomach by indulgence is often like a spoiled 
child, and does not know its real wants. And 
stimulating food and drink injures the tone of the 
stomach and lays a foundation for diseases of body 
and mind. A teaspoonful of laudanum or more is 
a good remedy for cramp after drinking too much 
cold water. For a cough or cold, make a decoction 
of the leaves of the pine tree sweetened with loaf 
sugar, and drink it warm when going to bed at 
night. To cure a sore throat, take a glass of olive 
or sweet oil and half a glass of spirits of turnpen- 
tine, mix them well together, rub it on externally, 
and wear flannel around it. The Journal of Health 
says : " When a child is taken with croup, instantly 
apply cold water or ice water if possible, suddenly 
and freely to the neck and chest with a sponge." 
Dr. Rush says : ** Worms are a provision by nature 
to consume the superfluous ahment which all young 
animals are disposed to take ; but calomel in large 



88 MEDICINE. 

doses with jalap is a powerful and safe antbelmin- 
tic." For asthma, slake quick lime in tar water 
and drink twice a day. For the cure of dysentery, 
take sweet gum bark, green or dried, steep it in 
water, sweeten it with brown sugar and drink it 
freely, and if necessary, add to it a little brandy. 



Kj^f^t 



A GUIDE TO PAEENTS 




WEALTH AND HEALTH. 




IN THE 



EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 

PREPARED FOR THE USE OP SCHOOLS AND PAMLIES. 
BY REV M. W. JACKSON, 

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, VA. 



"It is certainly of more consequence to a man that lie has 
learned to govern his passions, to he just in his dealings, to he 
temperate in his pleasures, to behave with prudence in all his 
aflfairs, than to he master of all the arts and sciences in the 
world besides."— Franklin. 




Labor improbus vincet omnia." — ViRgil. 



RICHMOND: 

RITCHIES <fc DUNNAVANT, PRINTERS. 
1854. 







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